interior ministry
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Hanna Birna Has Quit Politics
Former Minister of the Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir has announced she will not be running for parliament this autumn. RÚV reports that Hanna Birna, who is currently an MP for the Independence Party, has issued a statement to the press announcing that…
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Both Of Iceland’s Major Muslim Organisations Condemn Paris Attacks
Both of Iceland’s major Muslim organisations have condemned last Friday’s attacks in Paris. Meanwhile, police and the Interior Ministry, which presides over the police, appear to disagree on whether the threat of terrorism in Iceland has increased. In the wake of the…
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Interior Minister Will Postpone Deportation Of Two Asylum Seekers
The Minister of the Interior told parliament she will tell authorities to postpone the scheduled deportation of two asylum seekers. Vísir reports that Minister of the Interior Ólöf Nordal, responding to a question posed to her by opposition party members of the…
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Interior Ministry Forms Anti-Corruption Group
The Ministry of the Interior has formed a special group tasked with dealing with tips and complaints about corruption. The ministry announced that the group will specifically deal with cases of bribery and corruption in Iceland. They will do this by not…
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Interior Ministry To Further Assess Public Opinion Of Naming Committee
After conducting a general assessment, the Interior Ministry will soon be doing more extensive polling on what Icelanders think of the Naming Committee. Kjarninn reports that in March 2014, the ministry posted on its website the question “Is there a need to…
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Former Interior Minister: “Should Have Resigned” Sooner
Former Minister of the Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir has returned to parliament, after being away since last November, when she resigned from her Interior Minister position. In an interview with Ísland í dag, she expressed regret with how she responded to police…
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Tax Money Used To Assess Feasibility Of Suing Journalists
The Interior Ministry paid a private law firm 860,000 ISK to assess the feasibility of suing journalists writing about the Tony Omos Memo Leak Case. The Interior Ministry, in response to a question posed by MP for the Pirate Party Jón Þór…
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Immigration Appeals Board Finally In Place
On Monday, January 26, the Minister of the Interior appointed members to the Immigration Appeals Board (Kærunefnd útlendingamála), established by law in May 2014. The board was supposed to start its operations on January 1. The board’s Chair and its staff have,…
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Most Serious Case Of Political Corruption Ever, Says Professor
Jón Ólafsson, professor of philosophy at the University of Iceland, says that the interference of former Interior Minister Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir of a police investigation into her ministry exemplify more serious corruption in Icelandic politics than has ever been evident before. Last…
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Leaks About Private Matters Are “Very Common” In Administration, Says PM
On Stöð 2’s New Year’s Eve talk show, Kryddsíld, Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson said that leaks from within ministries and public institutes are “very common in Iceland, often leaks about matters concerning people’s private matters”. The Minister stated this when asked…
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Court Confirms Deportation Of Tony Omos
On Friday, the Reykjavík District Court acquitted the Directorate of Immigration (UTL) from charges pressed on behalf of Tony Omos, whose application for asylum in Iceland will thereby not be taken to consideration. A demonstration has been announced on Saturday, to protest…
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Post-Leak Hangover
Infamously, on November 20th, 2013, Fréttablaðið and mbl.is published news based on confidential information collected within the Ministry of the Interior. November 21st, 2013, DV points this out, and asks: who leaked an internal ministry document about an asylum seeker as it…
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Reporters Without Borders Regret Decline Of Press Freedom In Iceland
On Wednesday, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RWB) issued a statement expressing its concerns with the perceived decline of freedom of information in Iceland during the last two years. Among matters of particular concern, the organization says it regrets that the Interior…
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Day Of Memo Leak, Minister’s Assistant Called Police Chief Twice
Three telephone calls took place between Gísli Freyr Valdórsson, the Minister of the Interior’s assistant at the time, and Sigríður Björk Guðjónsdóttir, then Police Chief of Suðurnes, now Police Chief of Reykjavík, the day on which the former leaked the Ministry documents…
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All Highly Unlikely
The freedom fighter Last things first: Styrmir Gunnarsson, former editor of Morgunblaðið, has published his memoirs from the Cold War. As reported, these disclose, among other things, that during most of the 1960s, Styrmir provided the Independence Party’s Chair and Minister of…
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Interior Ministry Blocks Media Access To Staff
The Ministry of the Interior has ordained that its staff cannot converse with reporters and journalists without the Ministry’s public relation manager’s explicit permission. The P.R. manager is currently on vacation. The media will thus not be able to reach the Ministry’s…
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Prime Minister And Mayor Employed Morgunblaðið’s Journalist To Spy On Socialists In 1960s
From 1961 to 1968, Styrmir Gunnarsson, later chief editor of Morgunblaðið, spied, in his capacity as the paper’s journalist, on Icelandic socialists, delivering regular reports to the Independence Party’s elected officials, including Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson, and possibly the U.S. Embassy. This…
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Minister Hurried Police Interrogation On Her Own Initiative
Interviewed by RÚV’s Kastljós on Wednesday, Interior Minister Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir repudiated her earlier statements, when she claimed that her former assistant, Gísli Freyr, had requested her to intervene, when she asked the Police to hurry his interrogation, during the investigation that…
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Interior Minister’s Assistant Guilty: Eight Months On Probation
Today, Wednesday, saw Gísli Freyr Valdórsson, the Interior Minister’s now former assistant, sentenced to eight months in prison, by the Reykjavík district court, for leaking a Ministry document, containing sensitive personal information and unsubstantiated slander about one Tony Omos, at the time…
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Interior Minister Assistant Wants Prison For Journalists
An assistant to the Minister of the Interior is seeking to press for prison time for two journalists who briefly but erroneously reported on her involvement in the Tony Omos memo leak case. DV reports that Þórey Vilhjálmsdóttir, an assistant to Minister…
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Defence Attorney: Facebook “Likes” Constitute Bias
A lawyer defending former Interior Minister assistant Gísli Freyr Valdórsson has asked the court to remove the prosecutor for “Liking” a news story pertaining to the trial. Gísli Freyr Valdórsson, a former assistant to Minister of the Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, was…
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Minister Of The Interior Makes New Spin On Investigations
Minister of the Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir has come up with a new defence for how she interacted with the former police commissioner which legal experts say is completely wrong. RÚV reports that the Minister has issued another defence of her interactions…
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Interior Minister Spoke Untruthfully To Parliament
What Interior Minister Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir told parliament earlier this summer about police investigations of her Ministry, and what the reality was, are two different things. As Vísir points out, Hanna Birna addressed parliament on the investigations of her Ministry on numerous…